Get a clue!

On the trail of summer's hottest mysteries

REVIEWS BY BRUCE TIERNEY

Only a rare writer manages to craft a flourishing ongoing detective series; rarer still is the writer who manages to create more than one (Lawrence Block jumps to mind with his Burglar and Matt Scudder series). Gregory McDonald is now on his fourth(!) successful series (Fletch, Son of Fletch, Skylar and Flynn), with no end in sight. His latest, Flynn's World, finds the international secret agent deep undercover, on loan to the Boston police department as an "inspector," a made-up rank that allows Flynn a good deal of latitude in his choice of cases. His global nemeses think he is dead, and that suits Flynn fine. It gives him the time he needs to spend with his wife and five children, and to hold forth on all subjects Irish (which is fairly amusing in itself, since Flynn has a multi-national heritage commencing somewhere in the neighborhood of Basra, Iraq). This time out, Flynn investigates the character assassination and harassment of an elderly Harvard professor and the sometimes murderous rivalries of those on the tenure track. Flynn, like Fletch before him, is a multi-dimensional character, witty and observant. Regarding his education, he lays claim to a short term at a seminary, which he left because he "suspected that certainty stunts growth." It has been almost two decades since the last Flynn novel; I hope we don't have to wait nearly so long for the next.


An Alaskan adventure

With Death Trap, Alaska author Sue Henry brings us her 10th novel featuring dogsled musher Jessie Arnold. Employing a twist on the familiar "closed room" murder mystery, Henry gathers her main characters in the living room of Arnold's rural Alaska cabin and spins the tale in flashback from the views of each of the players in turn. Against the backdrop of the Alaska State Fair, a tale of dognapping, kidnapping and murder unfolds, as each member recounts his whereabouts and actions over the several-day course of events. Two new characters, verbose octogenarian Frank Monroe and 10-year-old Danny Tabor, each playing hooky from his respective responsibilities, form an unlikely alliance and add humor and realism to the narrative. Those familiar with the series will welcome the return of Alex Jensen, Jessie's sweetheart of earlier times. Two of the hallmarks of Henry's work are the depiction of the rugged Alaska landscape and the self-reliance of her heroine; these are elements largely overlooked in Death Trap. Instead, there are the individual accounts of interacting characters, each with a unique voice and role in furthering the story.


Secrets of a marriage

Cyanide Wells, Marcia Muller's first stand-alone novel since the brilliant Point Deception, is a tale of treachery and intrigue spanning 14 years and the breadth of a continent. Matthew and Gwen Lindstrom were, for all intents and purposes, a happy couple. They had their issues, as most married couples do, but they were young and deeply in love. Or so Matthew thought until Gwen's abrupt disappearance under mysterious circumstances, with foul play suspected. From that moment on, life was upended for Matthew. Nothing was ever proven, but suspicion and innuendo drove him out of his home, his job and the comfortable life he had enjoyed. Fast-forward 14 years: an anonymous phone call surprises Lindstrom with the news that his wife is alive, and that she is well aware of the misery and heartache she has caused him. By turns angry and unbelieving, Lindstrom makes his way to California to confront Gwen and discover the truth. The truth in this case, however, will prove more convoluted than either Lindstrom or the reader could predict. Crisp dialogue and excellent plot development characterize Muller's writing, and Cyanide Wells is no exception. As was the case with Point Deception, the reader finds himself (or herself) hoping that Muller will see fit to fashion another series around the characters.


Beloved bounty hunter returns

Few characters in modern mystery fiction are better loved than Janet Evanovich's inept (though I risk some flak from using that adjective) bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, whose latest escapades are chronicled in To the Nines. This time around, Stephanie's trailing an illegal immigrant on the lam from the law (and more importantly, on the run from her bail bondsman-cousin, Vinnie). Her travels will take her far afield from her usual Trenton haunts to the glitter and glitz of Las Vegas. (What's a Jersey girl to do?) The usual cast of characters is present: the irrepressible pink-haired Grandma Mazur, mysterious man-in-black Ranger, annoying sister Valerie (pregnant and ready to pop), retired (but by no means retiring) hooker Lula, et al. Fans of intricate plots and elaborate twists should look elsewhere for their entertainment; the Stephanie Plum novels are all about characters (in every sense of the word) and their strange and wonderful interactions. Longtime Evanovich readers cite humor and sense of family among the reasons for reading her books, and I concur wholeheartedly.


Classic L.A. noir

July's Tip of the Ice Pick Award goes to mystery-veteran-emeritus Walter Mosley for the superb Fear Itself, number two in what we hope will be a long series featuring bookseller Paris Minton and war hero ex-con Fearless Jones. As is the case with his best-selling Easy Rawlins series, Mosley's Minton/Jones novels are set in '50s Los Angeles, where the deck is routinely stacked against the black protagonists. Minton, a shy self-admitted coward, serves as the narrator and brains of the duo, while Jones possesses street cunning and the power to back it up. Minton would love nothing more than to work in his bookstore, reading voraciously between occasional customers. He is, however, best friends with Fearless Jones, who has a penchant for getting Minton into trouble at the drop of a hat. This time, Minton and Jones are hired to establish the innocence of a suspected murderer, the nephew of the wealthiest black woman in the city. It is a milieu with which they are unfamiliar, as money and its associated power are hard to come by in their home environs of Watts. A trail of false starts and dead ends leads the pair to the brink of ruin, and soon Minton is running for his very life. Fear Itself is classic Mosley: relentless action, complex characterizations and edge-of-the-seat suspense are to be expected. But the real reason to read Mosley is the noir edginess evocative of Hammett or Chandler, unequalled in modern mystery fiction.


Nashville-based writer Bruce Tierney is a lifelong mystery reader who was weaned on the Hardy Boys.

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